The present invention relates generally to apparatuses and methods for requesting and dispensing negotiable instruments such as bank checks, traveler's checks, and money orders. More particularly, the present invention relates to apparatuses and methods that enable bank customers to request and receive negotiable instruments from machines that print the requested instruments, and that are located remotely from one or more authorizing banks or automated teller machines ("ATMs").
Some known systems and methods for requesting and dispensing negotiable instruments provide public dispensing devices, such as ATMs, that are wall mounted units which may be found in places such as banks, airports, train and bus stations, supermarkets, etc. Such dispensing devices are inconvenient in that a bank customer must locate such a device before a desired negotiable instrument can be obtained. In many instances it may not be possible to locate such a device, particularly when a bank customer is in a remote location or when it is -very late at night.
Another known system and method for requesting and dispensing negotiable instruments provides a portable dispensing device that a bank customer may carry. This device is inconvenient in that the bank customer must first download a sufficient amount of money to the device to cover any instruments which the customer wishes to dispense. To do so, the bank customer may have to go to, or ship the device to, a bank or some other facility where the download can take place. Such a requirement may render the device useless to a bank customer in the event that the customer requires an instrument that exceeds the balance remaining in the portable device. This may be particularly frustrating to the customer in situations in which the customer has the required funds in an account with a bank affiliated the dispensing device, but such funds have not yet been downloaded to the dispensing device.
In some known systems and methods for requesting and dispensing negotiable instruments, requested negotiable instruments may only be dispensed from an instrument dispenser that is used to request the negotiable instrument, such as an ATM that dispenses traveler's checks. This requirement is inconvenient in that in many instances a party may desire to request, at one location, an instrument that is to be dispensed to another party at a second location. For example, a parent at home may request that a money order be dispensed to that parent's child from an instrument dispenser at a summer camp, boarding school, or college.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide an apparatus and method for requesting and dispensing negotiable instruments through which a bank customer can request and receive a negotiable instrument without having to locate and use a public negotiable instrument: dispensing device.
It would also be desirable to provide an apparatus and method for requesting and dispensing negotiable instruments through which a bank customer can request and receive a negotiable instrument using a portable, hand-held dispenser that obtains authorization to dispense the negotiable instrument by communicating with an authorizing bank over a wireless communication link.
It would be further desirable to provide an apparatus and method for requesting and dispensing negotiable instruments through which a bank customer can request from one device that a negotiable instrument be printed and dispensed from another device.